Karnataka High Court Upholds Suspension of Bike Taxi Services

The Karnataka High Court's division bench on Friday dismissed an appeal seeking to overturn a previous ruling that suspended bike taxi services across the state. The bench, led by Acting Chief Justice V Kameshwar Rao and Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar, was considering appeals from companies like Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd and ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd.

The appeals challenged the directive issued by a single judge on April 2, which had ordered bike taxi operators to cease operations within six weeks, a period later extended until June 15. The ruling stated that services could not resume unless the government provided specific guidelines under the Motor Vehicles Act.

During the proceedings, the division bench noted it might have contemplated staying the single-judge order if the state indicated an effort to develop regulations, attributing any delays to the process. However, the state government decided against formulating such rules. A notice has been served to the state government and other stakeholders, with the next court date set for June 24.

(With inputs from agencies.)